When Amado Ortiz Rivera was born on 13 July 1914, in Surutato, Mocorito, Sinaloa, Mexico, his father, Donaciano Ortiz Gamez, was 38 and his mother, Maria del Rosario Rivera Portillo, was 26. He married Candelaria Duarte Zazueta in 1938. They were the parents of at least 3 sons. He died on 18 February 2003, in his hometown, at the age of 88.